First Capital Connect - Tell us the truth

On the First Capital Connect website, they print their "performance statistics". Yesterday I wrote a blog detailing how they fiddle the figures. Last night, thanks to Ian Bell, who got in touch via the I Hate First Capital Connect website, it seems that I found another scam. Ian says that First Capital Connect switch trains around "in flight". Basically they redesignate services, so that they appear on time (to everyone apart from the poor passengers on the train). At the end of this blog is the example Ian gave from last night.


Now the point is this. First Capital Connect will go into their meetings with ministers and quote their latest "performance figures". These will show a dramatic "improvement" in performance. The ministers and the regulator will say "well done" and agree that they've done such a marvellous job that they will let them keep the franchise and continue to rake in profits.

The cause of the problem is that train lateness is measured by arrival at final destination. This gives dodgy operators such as First Capital Connect a massive incentive to indulge in dodgy practices such as train swapping, station skipping, etc. For the actual passengers affected, this is a nightmare.

In this day and age we need more accurate statistics. What we should have is a different measure of lateness. We should have "average lateness per passenger journey". In response to an email to First Capital Connect about the practice of shutting train doors at Mill Hill, before all of the passengers have left the train, they told me that their trains have sensors to say how many passengers are on the train. This is logged so there is no reason they can't tell us what the average delay per passenger is. I believe that this would give us all a far more accurate picture and would end this abuse. I would also like to see them fined for every time a train skips a station.

The bottom line is that the figures they provide for lateness are completely untrustworthy and give no real indication of how many trains are late at stations across the network. The Transport Minister Lord Adonis really should be made aware of the fiddling of figures and the massaging of statistics before any decision is made. Strangely enough I don't enjoy sitting by my PC watching train journeys on the display boards, but it is the only way to prove that the fiddling goes on. Please can I ask that everyone keeps an eye on these and if you see any "dodgy" fiddles go on, use the Facebook page to let us all know. The more evidence we get, the better. If possible save the train details and the time the message was posted. A simple way is to check the train before you start your journey. If it's late save the details (with intervening stops) and then check it after you get there. If it magically returns to being on time, post the details. This may seem like a hassle, but if we keep the pressure up, then we may actually get a decent service from a decent operator and then we really wouldn't have to be so obsessed with this awful operator.

Original Message displayed on the Noticeboard

Dep19:07 _ On time Brighton
Dep19:11 _ On time Preston Park
Dep19:17 _ On time Hassocks
Dep19:21 _ On time Burgess Hill
Dep19:23 _ On time Wivelsfield ... See more
Dep19:32 _ On time Haywards Heath
Dep19:37 _ 19:39 Balcombe
Dep19:42 _ 19:44 Three Bridges
Dep19:46 _ 19:49 Gatwick Airport
Dep20:02 _ 20:04 East Croydon
Dep20:15 20:42 _ London Bridge
Dep20:24 20:49 _ London Blackfriars
Dep20:26 20:51 _ City Thameslink
Dep20:30 20:54 _ Farringdon Underground
Dep20:34 20:58 _ London St Pancras (Domestic)
Dep20:41 21:05 _ West Hampstead Thameslink
Dep20:55 21:19 _ St Albans
Dep21:02 21:26 _ Harpenden
Dep21:08 21:32 _ Luton Airport Parkway
Arr21:10 21:34 _ Luton (Your station)
Dep21:11 21:35 _
Arr21:14 21:38 _ Leagrave
Arr21:20 21:43 _ Harlington
Arr21:24 21:47 _ Flitwick
Arr21:36 21:57 _Bedford (Your station)

This suddenly changed to this

Brighton Dep19:07 _ On time
Preston Park Dep19:11 _ On time
Hassocks Dep19:17 _ On time
Burgess Hill Dep19:21 _ On time
Wivelsfield Dep19:23 _ On time
Haywards Heath Dep19:32 _ On time
Balcombe Dep19:37 _ 19:39
Three Bridges Dep19:42 _ 19:44
Gatwick Airport Dep19:46 _ 19:49
East Croydon Dep20:02 _ 20:04
London Bridge Dep20:15 _ 20:18
London Blackfriars Dep20:24 On time _
City Thameslink Dep20:26 On time _
Farringdon Underground (Your station) Arr20:30 On time _
Dep20:30 On time _
London St Pancras (Domestic) Arr20:33 On time _
West Hampstead Thameslink Arr20:41 On time _
St Albans Arr20:55 On time _
Harpenden Arr21:02 On time _
Luton Airport Parkway Arr21:07 On time _
Luton Arr21:10 On time _
Leagrave Arr21:14 On time _
Harlington Arr21:20 On time _
Flitwick Arr21:24 On time _
Bedford (Your station) Arr21:36 On time _ 

The train mysteriously "made up" 27 minutes of lost time  

 As well as the two Labour MP's in the London Borough of Barnet (but sadly not the Conservative), the following MP's have signed Parliamentary EDM 623, calling for First Capital Connect to be stripped of their franchise. If your MP hasn't signed it, email them to ask them why. If they  have, please email them to point out the fiddling of figures (put a link to thios blog if you like).

Burstow, Paul

Pelling, Andrew

Hancock, Mike

Barlow, Celia

Brake, Tom

Jackson, Glenda

Simpson, Alan

Corbyn, Jeremy

Soames, Nicholas

Drew, David

Turner, Desmond

Leech, John

Jenkins, Brian

Goldsworthy, Julia

Baker, Norman

Hamilton, Fabian

 

First Capital Connect : An illustration of how they fiddle the figures

The First Capital Connect website quotes their punctuality performance figures. To be late, a train has to arrive more than 5 minutes late at it's final destination. First Capital Connect are desperately trying to hang on to their franchise and one of the things they are doing is trying to fiddle these figures. One method they use is to cut out stops on late running trains. There is a graphic example of this on their journey check website as I write this. Here are the details : -

09:14 Luton to Sutton Surrey due 11:05
This train has been delayed and is now 12 minutes late from Harpenden
This train has been revised.
It will no longer call at: Radlett, Elstree & Borehamwood, Mill Hill Broadway, Hendon, Cricklewood, West Hampstead Thameslink and Kentish Town.
09:14     09:14     Luton
09:16     09:16     Luton Airport Parkway
09:22     09:22     Harpenden
09:29     09:41     St Albans City
09:34     Not Stopping     Radlett
09:38     Not Stopping     Elstree & Borehamwood
09:43     Not Stopping     Mill Hill Broadway
09:46     Not Stopping     Hendon
09:50     Not Stopping     Cricklewood
09:54     Not Stopping     West Hampstead Thameslink
10:00     Not Stopping     Kentish Town
10:04     10:08     St Pancras International
10:09     10:13     Farringdon
10:13     10:17     City Thameslink
10:16     10:20     London Blackfriars
10:19     10:23     Elephant & Castle
10:23     10:27     Loughborough Jn
10:27     10:31     Herne Hill
10:31     10:35     Tulse Hill
10:35     10:39     Streatham
10:40     10:44     Tooting
10:43     10:47     Haydons Road
10:47     10:51     Wimbledon
10:50     10:54     Wimbledon Chase
10:52     10:56     South Merton
10:54     10:58     Morden South
10:56     11:00     St Helier
10:58     11:02     Sutton Common
11:01     11:05     West Sutton
11:05     11:09     Sutton Surrey
This is due to an operating incident.
Message Received: 09:37:01 01/02/2010   

As you can see, the train is 12 minute late at St Albans. This means that it will count as a late train. What did they do? They cut out all of the stops to St Pancras. You will notice that at St Pancras, the train is now only 4 minutes late (inside the 5 minutes where it counts as a late train). It should also arrive at Sutton "on time" by the designated measure.

Guess what? Whilst I was writing the blog, this message changed. It now says :-

09:14 Luton to Sutton Surrey due 11:05
This train is now running on time.
This is due to an operating incident.
Message Received: 10:38:16 01/02/2010

On Time???? Not if you live between St Albans and St Pancras !!!!!! Do you trust this company?

So what has really happened. Passengers at 7 stations, who already had a late train, now have no train at all. Who are FCC running the service for? Clearly not the passengers. Just for their own profits.

There are a few other problems today. The usual mix of Bad weather and "operating incidents".

11:14 Luton to Sutton Surrey due 13:05
This train will be formed of 4 coaches instead of 8.
This is due to poor weather conditions.
Message Received: 09:59:34 01/02/2010
   
14:44 St Albans City to Sutton Surrey due 16:06
This train will be formed of 4 coaches instead of 8.
This is due to an operating incident.
Message Received: 10:02:38 01/02/2010   
   
18:08 St Albans City to Sutton Surrey due 19:40
This train will be formed of 4 coaches instead of 8.
This is due to an operating incident.
Message Received: 10:04:56 01/02/2010

How long must we tolerate this farce? Lord Adonis must act now

First Capital Connect : Lies, distortions and untruths

First Capital Connect are going into PR overdrive to try and head off the threat to their franchise. This morning must be the first morning for months where the on line departure board hasn't shown a stack of "operating issues". My guess is that they are currently throwing the kitchen sink at the service, sanctioning overtime left, right and centre & possibly even delaying regaular maintenance to ensure all possible units are in service (this last statement is pure speculation, based on a private email from someone who claims to work for FCC - if First Capital Connect would like to comment on this, I'll print their response). They are doing this in the hope that the pressure dies down and they can "get away with it". Yesterday they did a meet the managers session and had a spokesperson on ITV London reports.

What infuriated me was the blatant Lies, the distortions and the untruths which have emerged. Michelle Smart from First Capital Connect said this on ITV London Reports  (The report starts at 5:36) :-

I don't think the companies worried about being stripped of it's franchise. The company knows what the ministers are indicating is that we need to deliver for our customers who value their time and we need to make sure that we can get them from A to B on time and that's what we are doing at the moment we had a good timetable last week, we're running a good timetable this week

Firstly, do you really believe that they are "not worried". If that is true, then they have either received private assurances and the Labour Transport Minister Lord Adonis is lying, or they are so completely out of touch with reality that they are clueless. Second, the blatant porkie. They say they ran a good timetable last week and they are running a good timetable this week. I've been monitoring the journey check board and today is the first trouble free day for months. Every late rush hour train inconveniences approx 500 people. A good timetable is one where all trains are the advertised length and all trains are on time. If you use the line, you'll know that this hasn't happened.

The next blatant distortion I want to expose, again pure hearsay, but believeable. It was contained in a comment by "fijago" on the I Hate First Capital Connect noticeboard - He quoted one of the managers "Julie" who was at St Pancras last night. Fijago said

She also just kept going on about how even though she lives in Northampton she prefers to travel in from Welwyn on FCC as she thinks it is a better service

Here the devil is in the detail. Firstly she probably gets a free ticket as an employee (or at least a heavy discount). Secondly, if she lives in Northampton, her nearest FCC station is Bedford. Welwyn is a considerably longer drive and on the Great Northern section of the route. Bedford is 21.5 miles from Northampton, Welwyn is 48.1 Miles from Northampton. Julie is actually saying she'd rather drive over 26 miles out of her way to avoid the FCC Thameslink route. That sums it up.

There is also a report on BBC London where Michelle Smart says that passengers are happy with the service over the last two weeks since Jan 17th (click on embedded interview). This woman is either deluded or just thinks we are stupid.

My challenge to Lord Adonis is this. If you want to improve ALL railway services for ALL passengers, strip the FCC franchise. This will send ALL operators a message they CAN'T ignore. Can Lord Adonis really let FCC take the mickey out of him by saying they are "not worried"?

The First Crapital Con Job !!!!!

There are lies, damn lies and First Capital Connect performance statistics. If you look at the First Capital Connect website, you will see that for 13 Dec-9 Jan only 62.8% of trains arrived on time. Pretty shabby you may think. Well, it may surprise you to know that for the vast majority of passengers, the figures were far worse. You see the figure tells you how many trains arrived at their destination within 5 minutes of the scheduled arrival time. For someone like me, who regularly travels from Mill Hill Broadway to St Pancras, what does this mean? Not a lot as the actual destination for the train is Sutton. If it arrives 20 minutes late at St Pancras, where the vast majority of passengers get off and are inconvenienced, it doesn't count as late. It is only late if it arrives at Sutton 5 minutes late.

This means that if First Capital Connect can make up the 15 minutes between St Pancras and Sutton, then the train was officially on time, even though 95% of the passengers for that journey were extremely late. So you may ask, how can a train which is 20 minutes late make up 15 minutes?

Well there are two rather clever little tricks that I've noticed. The first trick is that they suddenly change the schedule, so that the train doesn't stop at certain stations. I've read that every stop a train makes adds 2 minutes to the journey time. This is the time to slow down, stop, let passengers off and then speed up. Between Blackfriars and Surrey there are 10 stations. If all of these are missed and the trains is made not stopping, it will arrive on time at Sutton and therefore will not count as a late train. Sadly for the 5% of passengers who want to travel to stations between Blackfriars and Sutton and who are already 20 minutes late, they have been completely let down. How many times have you arrived at the station only to find that the train is "not stopping". This is why. It is purely to allow First Capital Connect to avoid penalties for running a late train.

The second trick is even more sneaky. Have a look at these timetables Firstly we have the Bedford - Brighton timetable.  If you look at the Journey time from Bedford to Flitwick. The first train leaves at 18:54 and arrives at Flitwick at 19:04. A journey time of 10 minutes. Then look at the the journey time for the same train between Gatwick Airport and Brighton. It leaves Gatwick at 20:41 and arrives at 21:18, a journey time of 37 minutes.

Now have a look at the Timetable for Brighton to Bedford. Take the first train shown. At 17:08 the train leaves Brighton and arrives at Gatwick airport at 17:39. The journey takes 31 minutes. This is six minutes less than the train travelling exactly the same distance in the other direction. Now look at the arrival time at Bedford. It leaves Flitwick at 19:26 and arrives at 19:38. A journey time of 12 minutes, when the train travelling in the other direction takes 10 minutes. This pattern is repeated throughout the timetable.

You may wonder why this is relevant and why it is a con. Because as I said at the top of the article, the train is only late when it arrives more than 5 minutes after it's scheduled time at it's final destination. On trains travelling to Bedford, they are allowing an extra 2 minutes to catch up. On trains to Brighton, they are giving it 6 minutes. What this means is that it your train from Bedford is 10 minutes late getting into St Pancras, it can catch up between Gatwick an Brighton and so counts as on time. Look at this another way. Likewise, if your train is six minutes late at Flitwick, it will be "on time" when it arrives at Bedford. One other "little con" I've noticed is the fact that "semi fast" trains from St Pancras to Mill Hill (stopping only at West Hampstead) are now timetabled to take 15 minutes. In the days of British rail, the journey from Kings X Thameslink, stopping at West Hampstead, to Mill Hill took 14 minutes ( a longer journey). Could it be that they are running the trains slower, so they can speed them up if they need to catch up? I suppose it's irrelevant as the stats say they are usually late anyway.

What is truly staggering is the fact that with all of these fiddles and cons going on, they still only managed to run 62.8% of trains on time. From the blog stats I see that "Westminster" are reading this blog. If you are reading this Lord Adonis, this has gone on long enough. Strip First Capital Connect of their franchise. The figures you see for lateness are being nobbled. And if you are just a regular passenger and you haven't yet signed the petition, please do this now by following the link in the sidebar (unless you like being conned).

"Do you want to lose the franchise like First Capital Connect?"

There is a simple reason for commuters on the Thameslink route having to suffer the daily tribulations that are inflicted upon them by this awful company. That reason is because their no 1 priority is to ensure huge cash returns for their directors bonuses and their shareholders dividends. Every time any measure is proposed which may improve the daily lot of passengers is proposed, chairman Martin Gilbert and CEO Moir Lockhead ask this question "What benefit does this deliver to the shareholders of First Group PLC?". If it can't be shown to increase profits, then the suggestion will be ignored. That is why First Group have a professional asset manager as their chairman. He knows how to find the G-spot of investors and knows how to keep the share price high.

The hard pressed passengers have a unique opportunity to change this equation at the moment. We can change it for all passengers of every train company across the country. We need the government to sack First Capital Connect for failure to deliver a proper service. There is an election approaching on the 6th May and the line passes through many marginal constituencies. This is one of the few times when politicians might actually listen to the people, the voters. If Lord Adonis were to sack First Capital Connect, this would have a massive impact across the country. Rail operators would sit up and take note. They would realise that passengers must be considered. When the question "What benefit does this deliver to the Shareholders?" is asked, the answer will come straight back "Do you want to lose the franchise like First Capital Connect?". You see First Group PLC pocket massive profits from the line. Losing the franchise will hit them where it hurts. It will send a strong message to all of the other companies. Let us not forget that all of the problems with the system have been caused entirely by bad management.

They are indulging in a massive PR operation to try and save the franchise and hope the protests go away. The truth is that unless they are stripped of the franchise, they will think they've got away with it. Removing the franchise will send a shot across the bows of all train operating companies, saying "get your house in order". Anything less will just perpetuate the existing status quo, where passengers are the last consideration for the Government and the Train companies.

First Capital Connect Update

Firstly, for anyone who missed the ITV London Reports story on First Capital Connect last night, here it is (thanks to Don't Call Me Dave at Not The Barnet Times for the clip) - Enjoy.

Next up, remember that First Capital Connect said that the days of 4 carriage trains were a thing of the past? We'll I just checked the First Capital Connect journey check website (at 17:45) and saw these affecting Mill Hill Broadway :-

16:44 St Albans City to Sutton Surrey due 18:08
This train will be formed of 4 coaches instead of 8.
Message Received: 05:09:55 26/01/2010
           
17:18 Luton to Sutton Surrey due 19:05
This train has been revised.
This train will be formed of 4 coaches instead of 8.
Message Received: 16:39:27 26/01/2010
       
20:20 Luton to Sutton Surrey due 22:07
This train will be formed of 4 coaches instead of 8.
Message Received: 05:10:41 26/01/2010

As for the petition to terminate the Franchise. It now has 4,726 signatures and has risen to the 26th most popular petition in the country.

One other thing I found out today. I was rather interested in who actually runs First Group PLC, the parent company for First Capital Connect. We've already looked at the CEO Moir Lockhead and his compensation package. I thought I'd see what the Chairman, Martin Gilbert brings to the group. If you click on this link, you'll see an impressive array of chairmanships etc on Mr Gilberts CV. He is the CEO of Aberdeen Assett Management, where he's worked since 1983. What amazed me (maybe I'm just naive or stupid), but he seems a bit light (shall we say) on experience of running transport companies. He looks like a great guy to manage your assets though. Could this be why First is so much better at looking after it's directors and shareholders than it's passengers?

When will the penny drop and Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Transport Minister Lord Adonis realise that the people who should run railways are people who understand railways?

Who do First Capital Connect think that they are kidding?

The sorry saga of First Capital Connect and the Thameslink route was given a good airing on ITV's London Tonight program last night (Please note this clip will be replaced later today). It is a really good expose on the shambolic service and contains a great Youtube clip. There were two rather revealing moments in the broadcast. The first was the fact that First Capital Connect were unable (or unwilling) to put a spokesman on air to explain the shambles. The excuse "We're too busy". The second thing, gave lie to what they were busy doing. After the clip at the beginning, the presenters asked for comments by email. The emails were read out towards the end of the show. Now if you are a Thameslink commuter who has used the service in the last three months, you tell me if you think this is a "real commuter" or whether you think that this was a message planted by someone in the First Capital Connect PR department. If you forward the clip to 25:04 you will hear it. Shane from Borehamwood said :-

 "I use Thameslink to work in the city. I find the service good. It's a great service"

It is simply totally unbelievable that anyone who commutes to the City from Borehamwood, could possibly say such a thing. Given the "emergency timetable" we had to endure, do you believe that any real person using the service would say it? First Capital Connect stand to loose hundreds of millions of pounds worth of revenue if they are stripped of the franchise. It is clear that they've gone into PR overdrive. It is clear to me that this company will stop at nothing to protect the revenue for their shareholders and directors. Sure I can't prove anything, but I use the service from the next stop on the line. I know what it's been like.  Lord Adonis should take note of these tactics

Trainspotting with First Capital Connect

Oh how times change, in the 1950's, trainspotting was quite a popular hobby for bored young lads. Many would merrily make their way to Mill Hill Broadway Station to watch all manner of impressive Steam locomotives speed through, hauling all manner of carriages and goods. Services with names as glamourous as "The Thames Clyde Express" and "The Manchester Pullman" whizzed through. Boys would re-enact these scenes of mechanical majesty in their front room with Hornby train sets.

As technology moved on and boys got Bicycles, TV's, Scalextrix, games consoles, DVD's, IPODS and DS's the appeal of standing on a railway station, waiting to see if a train came along faded. I've used the service at Mill Hill Broadway for most of my working life and I can't recall the last time I saw anyone standing, waiting with a notebook. Admittedly the modern fleets of trains are rather ugly square box shapes and are rather hard to tell apart. The commuter services we have to put up with have rather more mundane names such as the 21:17 to Sutton. I thought that the days of standing on platforms, taking pictures of trains passing through had passed. I was wrong.

First Capital Connect have re-invented the art of trainspotting. Websites are springing up, 10 to the dozen detailing train movements. Clips of trains pulling in and out of stations proliferate. Even more curiously, it's not young boys who are driving this, but adults of both sexes. What on earth could possibly make the movements of these dowdy unglamrous modern people shifters so interesting?

Here is just one of the better clips highlighting the problem. This was posted originally in June 2008 which graphically demonstrates that the problems with this mob are nothing new.

Sadly this hasn't been encouraged by the fantastic service provided by First Capital Connect. It hasn't been stoked by sexy new paint schemes for the trains, luxury coaches, where commuters are pampered. Nope, this mushrooming interest in train movements has been generated out of desparation. How many times can you arrive at work late? How many times can you watch trains packed to the brim pull into your station and pull out again, before you are literally driven insane. How many journeys home must you endure where you get more physical contact with your fellow passengers than you get with your spouse in a month of Sundays? How many times must you apologise to your boss?

I had a quick look through the latest messages on the "I Hate First Capital Connect FACEBOOK page". It looks to me as if the sexes are evenly represented. All races, colours and creeds are represented. Everyone is sick of First Capital Connect. We All hate them. If you'd told half the people leaving messages on this page a year ago that they'd become obsessed with train timetables and movements a year ago, they;d say you were bonkers. That is just how far First Capital Connect have pushed us.  There is a report in the Edgware and Mill Hill Times that FCC are allowing commuters to "grill the managers". I was quite excited about this. I thought "I'll bring my barbeque tongs and a couple of beers", but I was disappointed to see that we weren't going to be able to roast them over a hot fire. We can simply ask them for their latest set of lame excuses. Doubtless a PR company has said "Now the worst of the disruption is over, we can pacify the mugs and keep fleecing them".

Well I don't want to "meet the managers" I want to sack them. I want to see the back of this useless company and it's lame excuses. The temperature must be turned up and they must be removed. If you haven't already signed it, sign the petition at the side of this blog. Join the facebook group. Email all of your friends and ask them to do the same.Over 4,500 people have now signed up and it is growing every day. Write to your MP and tell them you'll vote for the other bloke unless they support the campaign AND IT'S SUCCESSFUL. Even better write to Transport Minister Lord Adonis and tell him

First Capital Connect - The uprising grows ! News round

Just a quick roundup of the campaign to strip First Capital Connect, Britains worst train operator of the Thameslink franchise. The Observer picked up the story yesterday - CLICK HERE TO READ - interesting to read the FCC saying that they are a great company because the Great Northern route hasn't deteriorated to the same level as the Thameslink Route just yet.

There is a press release from First saying they've now got all of the trains they ordered - CLICK HERE TO READ - in this press release they say that as they now have a full compliment of trains, they have no excuse to run short formations. I thought I'd check the First Capital Connect journey check site to see how they were doing this morning. Guess what

07:30 Luton to Sutton Surrey due 09:12

This train will be formed of 4 coaches instead of 8.
This is due to an operating incident.

Message Received: 06:00:54 25/01/2010

 The uprising continues to grow. The current number of signatures is 4,384. I predict that this will rise to 5,000 by the end of the week. Here's a video showing what many of us suffer on a near daily basis. This is a train at Cricklewood. This scene is repeated on a daily basis up and down the line.

I guess Lord Adonis doesn't see this much in his ministerial limo.

***** Update at 18:00 ************
So much for the extra carriages ending the days of short trains. Just spotted this on the Mill Hill Journey check board

17:38 Luton to Sutton Surrey due 19:12

This train will be formed of 4 coaches instead of 8.
This is due to a problem currently under investigation.

Message Received: 11:23:30 25/01/2010

 

18:44 Luton to Sevenoaks due 20:43

This train will be formed of 8 coaches instead of 4.
This is due to an earlier train fault.

Message Received: 17:50:18 25/01/2010

 

21:20 Luton to Sutton Surrey due 23:05

This train will be formed of 4 coaches instead of 8.
This is due to a problem currently under investigation.

Message Received: 11:24:03 25/01/2010

The Barnet Times censor my comment about First Capital Connect

How very odd. I left a comment on the Hendon Times website about this story where First Capital Connect were defending their performance


http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/4859766.Train_firm_defends_franchise_after_government_threat/?ref=mr#commentsList

Guess what? It's gone. I didn't save the text, but as I recall I simply suggested that the Times should do a story where they talked to commuters about the problem and also highlighted the No 10 Petition to get the Government to strip First of the Thameslink Franchise. As I recall, there were no swear words etc.

I rather hope that someone from the Times will explain to me why the comment was dropped. I must confess that I'm mystified as to why they should. Anyway if you haven't signed the petition and you are unhappy with First Capital Connect, I suggest you do. There is a link in the sidebar. We are 67 signatures short of 4,000 with over 1,000 signatures in a week. Let's hope that even if the Times are censoring us, the message gets through loud and clear to Trasnport Secretary Lord Adonis.

Thameslink is back to normal !

The Hendon Times trumpets the story "Thameslink is back to normal" on its website. But what does back to normal mean? As anyone who has followed the sorry tale of the First Capital Connect franchise on this website will most certainly wonder. The only safe way to know is to have a look at their website.

This I did and yes, normal service has been resumed. At 09:44 there were a total of 9 trains stopping at Mill Hill Broadway listed as running late. Here's a couple of the excuses :-

08:06 St Albans City to Sevenoaks due 09:53

This train has been delayed and is now 8 minutes late from St Albans City.
This is due to an earlier broken down train. 

 

08:22 St Albans City to Sutton Surrey due 10:05

This train has been cancelled.
This is due to a train fault. 

 

 

 So there you go. Thameslink is back to normal. Delays, breakdowns, cancellations. The Hendon Times had the following message on it's story

Are you a First Capital Connect Thameslink commuter? Did you have an easy journey into work this morning? Contact reporter Sarah Cosgrove on 07795 505 961

 If you are a Thameslink commuter and you had a rotten journey and I know lots of you have been looking at this blog, please do call her. I'd also suggest you sign our petition for Gordon Brown to sack First Group (see the sidebar). Nearly 500 people have signed the petition since I mentioned it on the blog on Friday (it has gone up from 2,650 to 3,109 signatures). When you consider that it is only being publicised through a couple of blogs, that is pretty impressive. I believe about 50,000 people a day suffer from using the service. That means that well over 5% of them have signed the petition, which is a pretty large number. Let's just hope that Lord Adonis follows up his threat to strip them of their franchise.

 

 

First Capital Connect Passenger Bulletin : "Up Yours Matey!"

********** Important Update 2 *************
Just checking the stats and noticed a few people in Westminster have been looking at this blog today. I wonder if this has anything to do with Lord Adonis suddenly deciding to criticise First Capital Connect on the BBC - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=2239285772 - ??????
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********** Important Update ***************
I've noticed a large number of hits from the I hate First Capital Connect Website. I've put a link to this and a couple of other relevant groups in the sidebar. If you are disattisfied please sign the No 10 petition. There is an election coming up and if enough people sign it, then they may take note. As of today there are 2,650 signatures. I will provide regular updates on this
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First Group, the company which operates the Thameslink service issued a financial update yesterday. This is the company which has been completely unable to run the service listed in it's timetable for several months. Here's the key statement from the update.

"We are encouraged by the performance of our rail division which continued to deliver growth despite the clear effects of the recession on the UK's rail industry," chief executive Moir Lockhead said in a statement.

Here is the performance stats from their own website :-

 13 Dec-9 Jan            62.8%
 15 Nov-12 Dec         84.1%
 18 Oct-14 Nov          82.1%
 20 Sep-17 Oct           86.8%
 23 Aug-19 Sep          93.3%
 26 Jul-22 Aug           90.8%
 28 Jun-25 Jul            87.7%
 31 May - 27 Jun       91.3%

As you can see, Moir Lockhead, the bloke who runs this lamentable company is "encouraged by the performance" of the shambolic travesty of a company he's in charge of. Could this be because he trousers over three quarters of a million quid a year in "compensation".

Having completely failed to do his job, how can he stick a finger up at his customers so crassly. It is clear to me that there is only one solution. Strip FIRST Group of this and all of their other rail franchises. Lockhead clearly doesn't understand what is expected of someone who is charged with running a rail company. As I predicted previously, the disruption has had no negative effect on the finances of this company. The only people to suffer are the long suffering passengers. I could not believe that First Group think they are doing well. It is time for the Government to step in and take proper action. Gordon Brown has an opportunity to take decisive action and show that he is a tough leader. How can he not take action? Transport Secretary Lord Adonis must take action or resign. This article in "The Argus" sadly shows that Adonis is completely detached from reality. Adonis seems keener to make excuses for this lamentable company than to actually do anything for the hard pressed commuters. I fully agree with Lib Dem Peer Lord McNally, who I heard on BBC London demanding action against First Group. According to the Argus  :-

Liberal Democrat peers leader Lord McNally, speaking from the backbenches, had urged the Transport Secretary to consider whether franchise operator First Capital Connect was meeting its obligations following a series of problems.

Not for the first time in relation to this dispute, it seems to me that only the Lib Dems are taking the concerns of the travelling public seriously. It is Lord Adonis job to sort this sort of problem out. It is clear to me that he's just not interested.